Planning for City Hall

The Charrette

In February 2005 the city held 13 sessions involving over 250 citizens, business leaders and representatives from various community organizations. The purpose of the planning session, known as a charrette, was to develop a downtown redevelopment plan, with a new city hall as the centerpiece. Citizens said that 4-5 stories was okay in the downtown core. They wanted a standalone city hall instead of a mixed use building. They also wanted to make sure there was a walk-through block plaza that connected 2nd Street to Meridian and parking was also a priority.

The GCCM Process

As a result of the charrette, a master plan was developed for the city hall block. The city used the master plan to craft its request for proposal which was advertised in 2005. The city chose to use the GCCM contracting procedure and asked that development teams with significant urban mixed-use experience, experience working in public/private partnerships respond to the request for proposal. Puyallup was able to use GCCM after the legislature amended the alternative Public Works Contracting statute in the spring of 2005. Puyallup took advantage of GCCM to gain control of the design, quality control and to save money by working with the architect and builder throughout the process of building city hall.

The Design Team

City of Puyallup signed an agreement with Egis Real Estate Service, Mithun Architects, and Skanska USA to build a new city hall on S Meridian across from the Puyallup Library.